Various kinds of devices including computers such as a main frame and various kinds of servers, various kinds of communication devices such as a router and a switching hub, and so forth are desired to operate in temperature ranges in which these devices are capable of performing normal operations. The reason is that, for example, if these devices are caused to operate in high-temperature environments, operation malfunctions occur or the deterioration of components is accelerated, which causes a failure. In general, in the operation of a data center, a large number of sensors are installed that are used for monitoring whether these devices operate in temperature ranges in which these devices are capable of performing normal operations. In a large-scaled data center, the number of sensors has been hugely increased.
These sensors are connected to a network. Pieces of temperature data measured by the sensors are monitored by a monitoring device such as an operation management server. On the basis of the pieces of temperature data measured by the sensors, the monitoring device performs the temperature management of the installation environments of the sensors and monitors failures in the devices of the sensors themselves.
By detecting that temperature data measured by a specific sensor has not been given notice of or no response about the confirmation of being alive has been received from the specific sensor, the monitoring device detects a failure accompanied with total breakdown due to the disconnection, short circuit, or the like of a sensor internal circuit.
However, even if a sensor has failed and measures an erroneous temperature, it may be difficult for the monitoring device to detect the failure when the sensor has given notice of temperature data and a response about the confirmation of being alive has been performed.
The monitoring device sets an adequate range as an operating environment temperature, with respect to a monitoring target such as, for example, a server. When the operating environment temperature of the monitoring target has exceeded the adequate range, the monitoring device gives an alarm and gives notice to an administrator. When actually the operating environment temperature of the monitoring target falls within the adequate range, if a failed sensor has given notice of an inadequate temperature, the monitoring device turns out to give an alarm, and as a result, the administrator looks at the failed sensor. However, when the operating environment temperature of the monitoring target is an inadequate temperature, the monitoring device gives no alarm if the failed sensor has given notice of an adequate temperature. As a result, it may be difficult for the administrator to detect the malfunction of the operating environment temperature of the monitoring target.
On the other hand, there has been a mechanism that visualizes and manages a change in a temperature due to air conditioning within a data center, using thermal fluid simulation. Such a mechanism has been disclosed in Chandrakant D. Patel, Cullen E. Bash, and Christian Belady, “Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of High Compute Density Data Centers to Assure System Inlet Air Specifications”, Proceedings of IPACK'01, The Pacific Rim/ASME International Electronic Packaging Technical Conference and Exhibition, Kauai, Hi., USA, IPACK2001-15622, Jul. 8-13, 2001 or Ratnesh K. Sharma, Cullen E. Bash, Chandrakant D. Patel, and Richard J. Friedrich, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Jeffrey S. Chase Duke University, “Balance of Power, Dynamic Thermal Management for Internet Data Centers”, IEEE INTERNET COMPUTING, pp. 42-49, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005. According to this technique, it may be possible for a computer to display a temperature distribution within a data center, in a temporal sequence. In addition, on the basis of the actual temperature of the data center at a time, it may be possible for the computer to calculate the temperature of the data center after a predetermined time has elapsed.